West Haven couple lets Starbucks drinkers vote on name for their baby

Kristen Mitchell

Published 12:00 am, Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Photo: New Haven Register

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Mark Dixon of Milford, 24, left, and Jennifer James of Naugatuck, 25, on the New Haven Green Tuesday, June 25, 2013 across from the Starbucks coffee shop on Church and Chapel street in New Haven, put out a ballot for people to vote between two names for their soon-to-be-born son. less

Mark Dixon of Milford, 24, left, and Jennifer James of Naugatuck, 25, on the New Haven Green Tuesday, June 25, 2013 across from the Starbucks coffee shop on Church and Chapel street in New Haven, put out a ... more

Photo: New Haven Register

West Haven couple lets Starbucks drinkers vote on name for their baby

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NEW HAVEN >> Logan Jackson Dixon may be the first baby named by people who also were choosing between a Frappuccino and a cappuccino.

The mom and dad of the yet-to-be born baby put the name question to customers at Starbucks after the West Haven couple struggled to decide on a name for their son.

Jennifer James, 25, and Mark Dixon, 24, are expecting their baby boy in September. They're regulars at the Starbucks near the Green in New Haven, right around the corner from where Dixon works at Elm City Market.

They come into the coffee shop almost daily, and know the baristas and some other customers by name. On Tuesday they examined a Starbucks to-go cup plastered with little blue hands and feet. Next to the cup a framed sign read: "Help us choose our son's (first) name, Jackson or Logan."

Dixon shook the cup Tuesday morning, noting "Not much in here today."

He unfolded slips of paper with scribbled messages from customers. Some read Logan, others read Jackson, and some suggest "Neither."

"We've gotten Obama, Jebediah, Lincoln. Someone put (a) write-in, Webster," said James, who is about seven months pregnant with her first child.

Dixon carefully unfolded the ballots and read them aloud.

"Chaz--definitely not Chaz, sounds like a bully," he said.

Every few days they counted the ballots. On Tuesday Logan won the count, 15-13, surpassing Jackson by only two votes. The slim margin isn't a trend, one name has been a clear winner.

"Logan--by far. At least by 400 or 500," Dixon said.

Dixon estimated they received nearly 1,800 votes since they started the contest, not including people who voted more than once. The couple began to recognize handwriting and repeated names as some guests--and Starbucks employees-- stuffed the ballot box with their suggestions.

The couple planned to end their contest Tuesday and make a poster to hang in the store, notifying customers which name won.

After almost half a year of deliberation, their son will be named Logan Jackson.

When the couple began the contest after finding out James was pregnant in January, she preferred the name Jackson and Dixon favored Logan, However, about halfway through the couple flipped positions.

The two names were selected after long deliberation by the couple, who eventually found those were the only names they both liked. Spelling, however, was another issue.

Dixon wanted Jaxon, so it would be spelled similar to his last name, and James wanted the more traditional spelling, Jackson.

She said when she realized Dixon would sound too similar to Jackson, the best name became apparent to her. Luckily for family unity, the voters agreed.

"I don't know why I didn't realize the 'Jackson Dixon' thing, but I think once I realized that, he was going to be Logan no matter what," James said.

But Dixon disagreed, and said he would have pushed for the name to stand as the voters decided.

The couple have saved all but a few stray slips of voting paper and have separated them into separate Starbucks pasty bags, labeled accordingly.

Glued together in a collage for a baby scrapbook, the slips of paper will be enshrined for Logan to see when he's older along with newspaper clippings from the time leading up to his birth.

"He's going to love it. We'll tell him we read the paper every day, everything that we see we cut out for him. We're saving the paper of things that happened leading up to his birth, and now he'll be a part of that," Dixon said.

The couple got the idea for the voting based on a system used by that Starbucks location, where customers cast votes for its employee of the month.

"We saw that and thought we might as well see how it works," Dixon said.

The feedback has been more than they expected.

"Every time we come here everyone is like 'I've been voting ever since you guys started,'" Dixon said.

The couple met at a party when they were 18, and have been together for the last three years. They plan to get married in the future, James said.

"I don't want to get her just a simple ring. I want to get her something that means something," Dixon said.

As for parenthood, the couple easily agreed on one thing: they are excited.